9 Celebs Who Admitted to Making False Claims

A little white lie has never hurt anyone, but for some celebs, when the lie spirals out of control, they have no choice but to fess up to telling tales out of school. Sure they might have taken advantage of the public's trust, but at least they were honest...eventually. Below, all the times famous folks admitted they totally made up those stories we all believed.

1. Lena Dunham

Source: Getty Images

When Girls writer Murray Miller was accused of sexual assault in 2017, Lena Dunham released a statement supporting her friend and denying the allegations could be true. "But during every time of change there are also incidences of the culture, in its enthusiasm and zeal, taking down the wrong targets," the statement said. "We believe, having worked closely with him for more than half a decade, that this is the case with Murray Miller. While our first instinct is to listen to every woman’s story, our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3 percent of assault cases that are misreported every year."

After receiving a tremendous amount of backlash for pretty much calling the accuser a liar, Lena backtracked her initial statement and admitted that she straight-up lied to protect her friend. "I made a terrible mistake," she said in another statement. "When someone I knew, someone I had loved as a brother, was accused, I did something inexcusable: I publicly spoke up in his defense. There are few acts I could ever regret more in this life. I didn’t have the 'insider information' I claimed but rather blind faith in a story that kept slipping and changing and revealed itself to mean nothing at all."

2. Nicki Minaj

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When Nicki first burst onto the scene, she often claimed she was bisexual and often rapped about her love for women with "big butts." However, in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, she admitted that she lied about being bi for attention. "I think girls are sexy,” she said. “But I’m not going to lie and say that I date girls.” Except you did?

3. Lindsay Lohan

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Lindsay Lohan's list of lies is quite long, however, she only admitted to lying once. Back in 2013 when she appeared on Oprah's Next Chapter, she admitted she lied about only trying cocaine "three or four" times. "I really haven't done it more than 10 to 15 times," she clarified. "Of course, I said three or four. I was terrified of being judged."

4. Thomas Markle

Source: Good Morning Britian

Duchess Megan's dad Thomas Markle has been the most outspoken member of her family, and he hasn't always told the truth. Shortly after Megan tied the knot with Prince Harry, Thomas whined to the press that his daughter was refusing to speak to him. However, earlier this month, sources revealed to People that Megan did reach out to her father via letter. Not only did Thomas confirm these sources were correct, he then leaked the letterto the press and admitted he had lied about Megan not contacting him. Honestly, we regret defending him.

5. Tyrese

Back in 2017, the former model and actor went on a bizarre social media meltdown where he claimed he was broke, that Will Smith gave him $5 million, and that his wife was pregnant. However, a few weeks after he made his bizarre claims, he admitted he had lied about everything. He blamed his bizarre social media outburst on the powerful depression medication Rexulti, claiming it made him do “some really stupid things publicly and privately." He confessed:

“To clear the air cause I’m an open book and got nothing to hide. My wife is NOT pregnant and never was (those meds had me on one) I owe no one any money on any level matter of fact I just took care of both of my lawyers fully 108k for my lawyer and almost 20k for Shaylas lawyer. I could never give what I don’t have. Smart folks do the math!”

6. Robin Thicke

Source: YouTube

Back when "Blurred Lines" was inescapable, Robin took full credit for the song that became a smash summer hit. However, when Marvin Gaye's family sued him for plagiarizing Marvin's classic, “Got To Give It Up," Robin had no choice but to tell the truth in court to distance himself from the lawsuit.

When asked in court if he created the track himself, he responded, "To be honest, that’s the only part where — I was high on Vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio," he was quoted as saying. "So my recollection is when we made the song, I thought I wanted — I — I wanted to be more involved than I actually was by the time, nine months later, it became a huge hit and I wanted credit. So I started kind of convincing myself that I was a little more part of it than I was and I — because I didn’t want him — I wanted some credit for this big hit. But the reality is, is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song.”

Ouch, talk about throwing Pharrell under the bus!

7. Phaedra Parks

Source: Bravo

Last season on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, former cast member Phaedra Parks was caught in a "megawatt lie" that involved her former bestie, Kandi Burress. The rumor, which was that Kandi and her husband were planning on drugging and raping fellow cast member Porsha Williams, was repeated by everyone all season. Phaedra initially said she had no idea where the rumor came from, but during the reunion show, Porsha revealed the rumor came from Phaedra.

"I repeated it because I heard it,” Phaedra explained, quasi-admitting to the lie. “Something was brought to me. I just repeated it. I repeated what someone told me. I’m not saying I didn’t say it. I’m saying I repeated it.”

8. Brian Williams

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For years, TV journalist Brian Williams told a harrowing story about his helicopter being shot at while he was reporting in Iraq. It wasn't until 2015 that he admitted he wasn't in the chopper that got shot down, he was in a different helicopter and basically lied about the whole thing. "I made a mistake in recalling the incidents of 12 years ago," he said in Stars And Stripe. "I want to apologize."

He later gave another apology on NBC Nightly News. "I said I was traveling in an aircraft that as hit by RPG fire," he said. "I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground-fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraqi desert. This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women, veterans everywhere — those who have served while I did not. I hope they know they have my greatest respect and also now my apology.”

9. Stephen Rannazzisi

Source: Getty Images

The comedian and The League actor spent his entire career claiming he escaped the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. “I was there and then the first tower got hit and we were like jostled all over the place,” he told an interviewer in 2009. After narrowly escaping before the second plane hit, Stephen decided to retire from his desk job and finally become an entertainer. It was an amazing story — too bad none of it was true.

In 2015, after being grilled by a New York Times reporter, he finally fessed up.

“I was not at the Trade Center on that day,” he said in a statement provided by his publicist. “I don’t know why I said this. This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry.”

In the same statement, he said that once he started the lie, he had no way to control it.

“For many years, more than anything,” he said, “I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man."